Page 58: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2022)

OPINION: The Final Word

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The distant, alarming, and now forgotten, headlines of COP 26 included mostly hot- air pledges of career politicians to address their citizens’ production of GHGs. There were inspirational speeches, but no mention of plastics.

end up in the ocean each year, and that ? gures. 300 million tons of plastic are world’s plastic waste from the CO- under the current trajectory the number produced every year. Plastic is every- VID-19 pandemic, about 25,000 tons, could climb to 53 million by the end of where in our lives. Packaging, building the equivalent to more than 2,000 bus- the decade. That’s a big number! and construction, household and sports es, dumped into the ocean. All of those

I’ve wondered why it’s only the Great equipment, vehicles, electronics and ag- masks and gloves have to go somewhere,

Paci? c Plastic Patch that gets all of the riculture. Half of that 300 million tons is much of it on a beach or in the seabed.

headlines. Maybe because it seems far used to create single-use items such as The distant, alarming, and now forgot- away? It’s a gigantic ? oating collec- shopping bags, cups and straws. There’s ten, headlines of COP 26 included most- tion of marine debris in the North Pa- no end in sight to ramping up both pro- ly hot-air pledges of career politicians ci? c Ocean that’s larger than Texas, and duction consumption. to address their citizens’ production of fast beginning to resemble the size of According to the National Academy GHGs. There were inspirational speech-

Australia. But it’s out in the open sea, report, the U.S. produced a total of 42 es, but no mention of plastics. Maybe so, conveniently, nobody will take re- million tons of all categories of plastic some of us took some comfort from the sponsibility for it. Oceanographers and waste in 2016, twice as much as China. false promise of the vague buzzwords of ecologists have discovered that about Just in U.S. households, 35 million tons the summit: “raised consciousness.” 70% of marine debris actually sinks to of plastic are thrown away yearly. Only Maybe our world leaders could be the bottom of the ocean. So, in fact, we a small fraction, maybe 10%, of that more than conscious about that 8 mil- have no idea how large the Patch really material is recycled. Most of it goes to lion tons of plastic waste that enter the is, or even how much plastic is in the land? lls, where it can escape into our world’s oceans each year. The details oceans or inland waterways anywhere. oceans. The report notes that U.S. recy- matter. We’re depositing the equivalent

All of us in the world like data, so here cling systems are “grossly insuf? cient.” of a garbage truck of plastic waste into we go: We do have plastic production We can’t take much comfort in the the ocean every minute. 58 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • January 2022

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